A Sabbath Day's Journey

By: Rev. Paul Landgraf

What is a Sabbath day's journey? First of all, it is a Jewish expression. We measure distances in meters or yards. The Jews had a certain distance that they could walk on Saturday before it would be considered work. So their synagogues that they went to on Saturday could not be very far away. The word appears only in Acts 1:12 and indicates a distance of about three-quarters of a mile.

With that in mind, I think it is important to remember the origins of Christianity. Just because we have an Old Testament, it does not mean that we call it the 'Outdated Testament'. Much of the Old Testament has a literary structure that we are not aware of because of our modern emphasis on chapter and verse divisions. Within many of these blogs, I try to get the reader to see a bigger picture, a larger perspective that often includes the Old Testament and the environment that was present when the New Testament was seeing the Light of the day.

Second, a Sabbath day's journey is intentionally short. These 'journeys' with a text, almost always one of the three readings for that Sunday, are deliberately brief discussions. This blog was never designed to be a comprehensive look at any text. Sometimes a specific word is studied in detail. But, as a whole, a blog entry, by itself, is meant to be quite brief.

Finally, since the term 'Sabbath day's journey' appears in Acts, it is meant to appeal to a wide variety of people. This blog is meant for those who cannot come on Sunday mornings. And it is also for those who do come on Sunday mornings but would also like a further study of the text. It is also for those who live somewhere else in the world (besides Drake and Freedom, Missouri, USA) and would simply like a further study of the text. It was meant to get these different groups of people to start thinking about the biblical texts. Part of the reason for this blog is that I am not able to have a bible class on Sunday mornings with either congregation, and so, to have a blog like this seemed like a good idea. I hope it is helpful for you, in whatever situation you may be.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. And thank you for taking the time to read this!

Is it okay to talk about the good news, even before you hear the full extent of the bad news? At least the LORD thinks so. You see that happening in the second half of the Old Testament book of the prophet, Isaiah.

In the first half of the book, in chapter 39, while the focus was on the problem of Assyria, the prediction was made that there would be a problem for Israel from the country of Babylon. And you have, starting in chapter 40, the perspective of good news from the LORD despite the Babylonian problem. (I can understand why some people think that one of Isaiah’s followers wrote this part of the book much later than the first half.)

Obviously, the LORD is the true author. And he gives the good news when he wants to give it. And with all this talk about the coronavirus going around at the present time, some good news is certainly not too soon.

This week, the Old Testament text is from Isaiah 42[:14-21], but I would like to look at the ‘bigger picture’, the entire text of Isaiah 40-66. If you would like to turn this into a bible study—since the congregations will not be meeting for worship for a couple of weeks—I would suggest that you read a few chapters a day, starting at Isaiah 40, to see the progression and the wonderful (and not-too-early) comfort within this part of scripture. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or difficulties with a particular text.

I would like to focus on the start of that section of Isaiah 40-66 and to note how special the structure is, with its repetition, along with the special words that are used. Here are the first two sentences from that first chapter: ‘Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.’

First of all, the word translated ‘comfort’ can also mean to be sorry or to regret. The form of the verb here is intensive, so a message we can take from this is that intense sorrow or regret may lead a person to do something nice for someone else. That is a good definition of the word comfort, a sorrow that is intense, an emotion that gets down to the level of another. This intense sorrow or regret ultimately becomes an action and delivers a gift.

Second, notice that the command is repeated. That something is said twice is not just a thing in the Hebrew language. All people everywhere repeat themselves when something is important enough.

Now to have a COMMAND repeated is something new. In Isaiah, there are other parts of speech that are usually repeated before this.

Usually a thing is repeated only once. Please note how unusual it is to have three of the same words together. And this is what is done in Isaiah 6, when one angel says to the other, ‘Holy, holy, holy,’ an apt description of the LORD of hosts, basically the Triune God. In Isaiah 21:9, Babylon has fallen—good news for us—and that action is repeated twice. And there are other pairs in the first half of the book.

In the second half of Isaiah, these non-commands come up twice in a row sometimes. But they are not very frequent. In Isaiah 41:27, the text may be translated something like, ‘Behold, here they are!’ But the same word is repeated. And in 43:11, 43:25, and 48:15, the word for ‘I’ is repeated right away. It should be said here that the LORD is the one who is talking in these places. And he is repeating himself for emphasis on himself and what he is doing. (It could also be noted that, in the last occurrence, the use of the word ‘I’ is not as emphatic as it was before. In other words, the LORD seems to be lessening his role in the picture, and the plan is for his WORDS to take a more prominent place.)

So, we have a double command, the first of its kind, at the beginning of the second half of the book. So where is the next ‘double-command’ to be found?

It is at the half-way point of this half of the book, amazingly enough. And while there is some variety, there is a noticeable progression in this second half of the second half. The first three commands are basically to ‘Wake up’ (51:9, 51:17, 52:1). Then the command is to ‘Depart’ (52:11), then ‘Build up’ (57:14) This same command occurs a second time, but only five words after a different command, to ‘Go through’ (62:10). And it is gates that a person goes through.

The first command to ‘build up’ is a road or a way, probably within the city gates. The second time the command to ‘build up’ is given, that is connected to a different thing to build, usually translated ‘highway’. That is something outside the city gates.

There is a definite progression here—from waking up, to leaving, to building up a way inside the city, and then to building up a way outside the city. This seems to be a good progression if the city you wake up in is surrounded by the enemy. This progression is your way out; this progression is your salvation.

After this midpoint in the second half of the book, there are also duplications of other words, but not with the frequency of commands. At 51:12, near that half-way point, the word ‘I’ is again repeated, and it is the emphatic use of the word this time. And it is also talking about the LORD, but the verb connected to it is interesting: the LORD is the one who ‘comforts’. This is the same word which was doubled in chapter 40.

Is the LORD the one who comforts, or is it we who are to do that? Ultimately, when we comfort, it is the LORD doing it through us. He is the only one who can give true comfort. And he chooses to do that through HIS words that we use.

Near the end of the book, in 57:19, the word ‘peace’ is repeated, and this is also something that the LORD is giving out. But, right after that, God says that there is no peace for the wicked. And in 58:2, the word ‘day’ is repeated, but it is not a significant thing and is usually translated with simply the word ‘daily’. These cannot match the progression within the double commands of the book.

I think the duplication of the commands is important. It certainly did not have to be there. And we Lutherans can instantly think of the law when we hear of commands. But these are commands to do some very wonderful things when it is ultimately the LORD who is doing them. That is ultimately the job of the pastor, to get out of the way. One seminary teacher used to say, ‘To be ordained is to be rendered irrelevant.’

In those first two verses of chapter 40 that were quoted above, notice that, at the end of that quote, there is talk about receiving ‘from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.’ This word ‘double’ is only a couple other places in the Old Testament, and only found elsewhere in the book of Job—now THAT is a book with some very different vocabulary. (It is also interesting is that the Hebrew word is very similar in sound to the English word ‘couple’.)​The LORD wants to make sure there is comfort. And he wants to give more comfort than there is sin. And he is very intense about it. And he wants to get down to our level. And that is what Jesus was all about doing. He is our way out. He is our salvation.

Last week the Old Testament text was Genesis 12:1-9, and I tried to be helpful by focusing on the intricate structure of Genesis 11-25. This week I was thinking that it might even more helpful to look at the larger structures that are surrounding that text, especially since the Old Testament text for this week is from Exodus [17:1-7]. And just how do those two books connect to each other?

I had mentioned that the book of Genesis has been divided into two parts of dissimilar sizes. The first, short part helps to set the stage for the larger, second one. The first part of essentially chapters 1-11 contains five mentions of ‘generations’, something that makes something more. Here are their occurrences (with very literal translations):

‘These are the generations of the heavens and the earth, when he created them in that day, Yahweh [the Lord] God made the earth and the heavens (2:4).’

‘This is the account of the generations of Adam, when in the day God created man in the likeness of God, he made him (5:1).’

‘These are the generations of Noah…(6:9a).’

‘And these are the generations of the sons of Noah…(10:1a).’

‘These are the generations of Shem…(11:10a).’

It seems that there does not have to be five occurrences of this phrase. The generations of Shem could have been included under the generations of the sons of Noah, since Shem was a son of Noah. But five is an important number. (There are often five books in different sections of the Old Testament.)

The point has also been made quite often that the heavens and the earth do not have generations like a person does. But this first occurrence, the way it is explained, does help the reader or listener to look for the literary structure of repeating something in a reverse order. That happens many times in the Old Testament, but this especially happens in Genesis. The order of the phrase, ‘the earth and the heavens’, is extremely rare in the Old Testament. Usually it is in the order of ‘the heavens and the earth’, as it is the first time it is mentioned. It happens in both orders to help a person see those intricate structures.

It could also be said that the rest of Genesis, essentially chapters 12-50, contains five similar mentions of ‘generations’.

‘And these are the generations of Terah…(11:27a).’

‘And these are the generations of Ishmael, son of Abraham, whom Hagar, the Egyptian, maidservant of Sarah, bore for Abraham (25:12).’

‘And these are the generations of Isaac, son of Abraham...(25:19a).’

‘And these are the generations of Esau, that is, Edom (36:1).’

‘These are the generations of Jacob (37:2a).’​I started that list by saying that ‘It could be said’, to give a hint that there is something more that could be said regarding the entire thing. In short, there is another occurrence of ‘these generations’. In the chapter devoted to Esau, the following is also said: ‘And these are the generations of Esau, the father of Edom (36:6).’

Why devote two occurrences of this word to a person and a race of people not too highly thought of in the Old Testament? It may be to make the only other appearance of this phrase into a total of twelve occurrences, instead of having only a total of eleven.

There happens to be one more occurrence of ‘these generations’ within the entire Pentateuch, something in Numbers 3:1. Here is the text: ‘And these are the generations of Aaron and Moses on the day when Yahweh spoke with Moses on Mount Sinai.’

Now that seems a little unusual to speak of Moses talking with Yahweh on Mount Sinai, when that happened most famously in the book of Exodus. But this is very close to a midpoint between the start of Exodus and the end of Deuteronomy.

Midpoints are important because they give an order and a structure to the work. (Remember that the Old Testament people did not have the structure of chapter and verse as we do.) All the generations that happened in Genesis are very important. And the story continues to be very important. God did not have to start all over again, although he was pretty close to doing that at various times. So many more wonderful details will be coming in the future.​God knows what he is doing. And he is doing a good job. His generations ultimately generate some very good things. And he likes to use a big number like twelve to show how often his blessings overflow.

The Second Sunday in Lent will be the first Sunday in Lent that the gospel text looks at the Gospel according to John [3:1-17], and we will stay with that account until Palm Sunday. Since there will be a few more opportunities to look at that gospel account, I thought it would be good to look at the Old Testament text for this Sunday, since that text is from the special book of Genesis.

The use of Genesis within this first year of the three-year series is interesting. Last week we looked at critical ‘watershed’ chapter, Genesis 3. This week, the text is from Genesis 12[:1-9], another watershed chapter—since the start of the redemption story begins here with Abram. And on Trinity Sunday we will be looking at the very beginning in Genesis 1. And there is one more Sunday, during the season of Pentecost, when we will be looking at the very end, the very last chapter, Genesis 50.

Some people think that the farther away in time that something happened, the more disconnected they are from it. But just the opposite can be true. If a certain book of the bible is important, we will hear from its beginning AND its end.

In this Old Testament text from Genesis 12, Abram has been told to move to the Promised Land. As was mentioned above, this starts the story of redemption. God certainly created things, but how he redeems them is much more important. This is not just a story of ‘What happened?’; this is ‘What happened that is incredibly important?’Some people look at these first chapters in the life of Abram/Abraham, and they think that the circumcision story or the story of him FINALLY having a son is the most important thing, and some people make either of these things the turning point for the entire section. (Turning points are typical in Hebrew literature.) But there could be another, more important, more central, turning point.

The turning point suggested below is the same one that appeared in the story of Noah (see 8:1), and it is the same turning point that will appear in the story of Jacob and Rachel (see 30:22). The turning point for those three stories is the same, the remembrance of God. The name ‘God’ is usually connected with a command. For ‘God’ to do something gracious is different and catches our attention. And his remembrance is certainly a good and different thing.

God does not have to remember us. We are sinners and do not deserve to be remembered. But he can choose to remember for a particular reason. And please remember that this is not a simple remembrance that makes a person’s name come to mind. This is a remembrance that does something good. This remembrance is an active and lively thing.

This remembrance changes things. The events before the remembrance and the events after the remembrance have a connection and are in a particular order, and it changes from something negative to positive, and the order is reversed.

It should be noted that some of the extremely negative things that involve Abram/Abraham may not described in a negative way in this ‘outline’ for a very simple purpose; God does not want these things to be remembered. Abraham could be remembered as someone who keeps lying about Sarah being his wife, but that is not a good thing to remember. The focus is meant to be on God’s good news.

For God to remember a person is significant. The criminal on the cross just asked to be remembered, and Jesus gave him so much more (see Luke 23:43). Here is an ‘outline’ of basically chapters 11-25 that go from negative to positive and turn at 19:29.

1. Genealogy: Sarah is barren (11:27-32) 2. Blessings are promised to Abram (12:1-9) 3. Abram’s possessions increase, although there are some significant difficulties (12:10-13:17) 4. Abram and Sarai live near Mamre at Hebron (13:18) 5. Details are given regarding the kings in the area (14:1-12) 6. Abram is tempted to get rich from the gifts of another (14:13-24) 7. Abram makes a covenant with Yahweh (15:1-21) 8. Hagar is pregnant with Ishmael and runs away (16:1-16) 9. The covenant of circumcision is given (17:1-27) 10. Isaac is promised (18:1-15) 11. Abraham intercedes on Lot’s behalf (18:16-33) 12. Most of Lot’s family is preserved (19:1-28) AND GOD REMEMBERED ABRAHAM… (19:29) 12. Lot’s family line is preserved (19:30-38) 11. Abraham intercedes on Abimelech’s behalf (20:1-18) 10. Isaac is born (21:1-3) 9. Isaac is circumcised (21:4-7) 8. Hagar and Ishmael are sent away (21:8-21) 7. Abraham makes a covenant with Abimelech (21:22-34) 6. Abraham is tested regarding his love for his son (22:1-19) 5. Details are given regarding Nahor, Abraham’s brother (22:20-24) 4. Abraham purchases property near Mamre at Hebron to bury Sarah (23:1-20) 3. Abraham’s ‘possessions’ help him to find a wife for his son, although there are some small difficulties (24:1-58) 2. Blessings are given to Rebekah as she leaves her family (24:59-67) 1. Genealogy: Keturah has several children with Abraham (25:1-11)​Why go to such detail to tell the story? Because the story is so incredibly important. And this is just the start.

The first Sunday in Lent has a theme that is easy to remember. This is the Sunday where we look at the temptation of Jesus after his baptism. And with three gospel accounts that are quite similar to each other, it is easy to have enough material for the three-year series. And, although this year we are looking at the temptation of Jesus from the perspective of the Gospel according to Matthew [4:1-11], I would like to consider a temptation account within the Gospel according to John.

The following work really helped to get me started on this topic. If you would like to read about this in much more detail, I would highly recommend a chapter entitled, “Jesus the Baptist: The First Temptation of Christ.” It was written by Sean M. McDonough. And it appears in yet another book with a long title (although, surprisingly enough, not incredibly costly): In the Fullness of Time: Essays on Christology, Creation, and Eschatology in Honor of Richard Bauckham. It was published by Eerdmans in 2016.Jesus’ being tempted by the devil deserves a prominent place at the start of Jesus’ ministry. In the Gospel according to Matthew, within this text, there is large number of historical presents (where the writer could have chosen to write in the past tense, but he chooses to write in the present; instead of ‘the devil took Jesus into the holy city’, he writes ‘the devil takes Jesus into the holy city’; all translations are the author’s). In the Gospel according to Mark, the first historical present is within this short account of his temptation (Mark 1:12): ‘And immediately the Spirit throws him out into the desert.’ In the Gospel according to Luke, the devil does his three temptations—although they are in a different order—and then he leaves, but the text says that he went away from him ‘until the proper time (Luke 4:13b)’. The devil comes back near Jesus’ crucifixion, obviously at an important time for all involved—including us. The only time Satan is mentioned in the Gospel according to John is when he enters into Judas Iscariot, and he gets things ready for the betrayal.

Is it possible to have a temptation at the beginning of the Gospel according to John? If so, it would look significantly different in this account, as many things do. The perspective, other than being different, is one of an eagle—that is the living creature most often associated with this account. And the eagle usually flies high overhead and is usually not bothered by things that happen below.

I am proposing that Satan need not be mentioned for there to be a temptation. Although the devil is not mentioned, Jesus is certainly ‘troubled’ as he gets closer to the cross in this gospel account. Jesus says (12:27): ‘Now my soul has been troubled, and what may I say? Father, save me from this hour? But because of this I came to this hour. At John 13:21, the text says this: ‘Saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and witnessed and said, “Amen, amen, I tell you that one of you will betray me.’

Things go quite well for Jesus at the beginning of this gospel account; there is no description of him being ‘troubled’. (The only thing ‘troubled’ near the beginning of the account is the water in John 5:7.) People are making great confessions about him. The closest thing to a temptation at the start of Jesus’ ministry may be at the start of John 4. There the text reads as follows (verses 1-5a):

When, therefore, the Lord knew that the Pharisees heard that Jesus was making more disciples and baptizing more than John (though Jesus himself did not baptize but his disciples), he left Judea and went away again into Galilee. And it was necessary for him to pass through Samaria. He comes, therefore, to a city of Samaria called Sychar….

The text continues with the story of the woman at the well (which will come up soon as a gospel text this year in Lent). So Jesus may have been tempted to popularity.

If so, there is another time that this happens, although not at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. When he feeds the five thousand, in the Gospel according to John, Jesus knows that they were about to seize him to make him king, he departs again, to a mountain this time (John 6:15).

What is interesting about these two texts (and, with the Gospel according to John, there is a LOT within the category of ‘interesting’) is that both of the texts call Jesus ‘Lord’, a title usually connected to him after his resurrection. (This is also somewhat prominent in the Gospel according to Luke). You can see this in the quotation above in 4:1, but the word also appears in 6:23. The first time it was connected to baptism, and the second time it is connected to giving out the bread, and the Lord is described as ‘having given thanks’, and this word, in the Greek, is a word that has, as its base, the word ‘Eucharist’. This word is an ancient term for the Lord’s Supper.​Jesus was tempted to become popular with baptizing, and Jesus was tempted to become popular with giving out his special bread. Pastors can become tempted as well. With Jesus having the title ‘Lord’, we are reminded as to who is in charge—and what has to happen first on his cross.

The last Sunday in the Epiphany season is traditionally Transfiguration Sunday, the Sunday with a big ‘manifestation’. Since this year we are looking at the Gospel according to Matthew (17:1-9), it would be nice to make a connection between this first gospel account and the first book of the Old Testament, the book with the big beginning, the book of Genesis.

Each gospel writer describes the face and clothes of Jesus on that special mountain in a special way, and in the Gospel according to Matthew, we have that description in a way that makes me think about the creation account. When the face of Jesus is compared to the sun and the clothes of Jesus are described as white as light (verse 2), and these two created items seem to be starting points within the creation account.

The creation happened in six days—and it is important to take that literally. And it seems to be broken into two sets of three days. For the first three days, God created the light, and then the waters, and then the land. These three things seem to set the stage for the next three days. For the next three days, God creates the sun, moon and stars on the first day, the birds and sea creatures on the second day, and all the land creatures on the last day. The two parts of both setting the stage and then filling it are helpful to see the importance of the salvation story that the book of Genesis begins to relate. This story is not about INFORMation; it is about SALVation.

Another way to look at the creation account is to see only ONE starting point, that of God speaking. God did not have to say any of those things for them to happen. There were basically no persons to hear him anyway. But he spoke everything into existence.Perhaps you knew that there were other creation accounts from other cultures and civilizations. They also have significant starting points, and you can tell a lot from the place in which they start.

There is quite an unusual, ancient ‘creation’ account with a particular Babylonian ‘theogony’. The starting points are two gods, a male and a female. And you can imagine that with such a starting point, there is a chance of things going wrong in some significant ways.

With this particular creation account, other things are, of course, eventually brought into existence. When male and female work together, there is a certain amount of power there. But with that power, there is a great potential to misuse that power. Within that account, there is a lot of talk about killing, and there is also a common refrain that speaks about sovereignty and lordship. So, it is interesting that there is one ‘quotation’, one use of words, within this Babylonian ‘creation’ account, where the earth, as a woman, turns her attention toward the god of wild animals, her son, and wants to have a serious relationship with him. And you thought that people did weird things only in recent times! (The Ancient Near East Supplement: Relating to the Old Testament, Princeton University Press, 1969, pages 81-82).

In such a different way, the true God of the universe speaks. There is a selfless, gentle, patient love, with which he says, ‘Let there be light.’

How long would he have to wait for his only Son to say the words, ‘I am the light of the world’? (John 8:12). It also took a while for Jesus to tell his disciples that THEY were ‘the light of the world (Matthew 5:14).’ Was he contradicting himself with this statement? Certainly not! At the end of his point, he says that your light should shine so that people may see their good works and give glory, not to themselves, and not to Jesus, but to YOUR Father in heaven.​The starting point of YOUR Father in heaven is certainly a significant one.

It recently ‘hit me’ that the sixth Sunday after the Epiphany is our last look at the Sermon on the Mount for a while [Matthew 5:21-37]. Countless sermons have been preached about this sermon, many books have been written about it, and there is still much more that could be said.

If you are interested in the connection between the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord’s Prayer—this is something I brought up last week—I was going to suggest looking at the very recent book by Charles Nathan Ridlehoover, The Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel (T & T Clark, 2019). I also checked the price of it and would recommend you try to borrow it from a seminary library. And speaking of seminary libraries, if you are near Concordia Seminary in St. Louis (Missouri), or if you can get your hands on a copy of this, I would also suggest looking at the dissertation of David Elbert Fielding, The Lord’s Prayer: Its Interpretation and a Reassessment of an Eschatological Orientation, Favoring the Prayer’s Primary Application as Being for the Present Gospel Age (1995). But if you are not into books with long titles, you just might want to read the following few paragraphs. I will try to stay on a single point.

Both of the above books see the Lord’s Prayer as central to the Sermon on the Mount. The second book even goes so far as to say that the critical word ‘daily’ is the word in the exact center of the Lord’s Prayer. This is a very special type of bread for which we are asking. I have mentioned this point before, but not within the following context.I would encourage you to see the Sermon on the Mount as a mountain, with that middle word ‘daily’ as the top, the peak, the very important point (literally). And when God comes down to that mountain and he gives that very special word (the word which we are not sure of its meaning), everything changes because of who he is and what he has done.

I have mentioned before that the petitions in the Lord’s Prayer change significantly after the mention of that special word, ‘daily’. In the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord’s presence makes forgiveness possible, both among us and among others. He takes the initiative and leads us—but not into temptation. He also rescues us from the evil. His presence does some significant things!

In the Old Testament, the Lord started to do amazing things on that one particular mountain in all the world, Mount Sinai. Then his presence was connected to a moving tabernacle or tent. Then it was connected to the stationary temple in the all-important city on Mount Zion, the holy city of Jerusalem. Then it was connected to Jesus. And all those things happened in a place on the earth that was close to three different continents and, therefore, that special word was able to be passed on to many others in the world.

Jesus moved on one particular day to a particular mountain and gave this sermon. This next Sunday he is going to move to another mountain to be transfigured. And in a few more Sundays, we are going to see him move on to another mount, a smaller one; it was called ‘The Place of the Skull’. And, just so you do not miss him, he is in the middle, between two criminals, both of whom were rightly condemned to death.

Just so you do not miss the importance of all of that which has happened on this earth, I have decided to include a picture with this blog. In the gospel text for this Sunday, heaven is called the throne of God and the earth is called his footstool (Matthew 5:34-35).

We usually think of a footstool as just a fancy place for the feet of someone sitting down—in this case, the king. The picture below is not so cute. It was taken from a larger one where the pharaoh, Amenhotep the second (1445-1420 B.C.), is placing his feet upon some of his enemies. A footstool is a place where a very powerful person’s feet would go. In Joshua 10:24, Joshua has the captains of Israel place their feet upon the necks of their enemy’s kings.​We deserve to be the ones in this lowly position on earth. What a different picture we have in the Bible of our Lord and his love for this sinful world!

For the fifth Sunday after the Epiphany, we go back to where we were, two weeks ago, making our way through the beginning of the Gospel according to Matthew. For this Sunday, the gospel text is Matthew 5:13-20.

It is difficult to understand a sermon when you walk into the middle of it. But with this so-called ‘Sermon on the Mount’, the topic already seems to jump from one place to another. Is there an actual theme within the entirety of this sermon—other than the location from where it was given?

Jesus started the sermon with the beatitudes, and they may be seen to be from a position of authority. That is also mentioned as a response to the entire sermon (see 7:28-29). Jesus explains the groups of people who are blessed and in what way they will be blessed.

From the previous Sunday, we learned that, when given a list in this gospel account, the middle seems to be an important item (see 4:23-25). In this list of nine, total beatitudes (some count only eight because they do not want to include the one regarding persecution), the middle one changes the nature of the blessing.With the first four beatitudes, something is lacking in the group at the start. After those beatitudes, there is something in the group that Jesus identifies that does not show something lacking, but it shows something wonderful that they possess. And because of this characteristic, Jesus promises a blessing to that particular group that is still unexpectedly generous. In short, in whatever your situation, Jesus does something incredible.

Jesus makes his very first, very obvious self-reference in the Sermon on the Mount with this very last blessing (verse 11): ‘Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely ON MY ACCOUNT (emphasis added).’This self-reference is certainly not a positive one. Jesus could have described himself as the powerful one, even as the Son of God (see verse 9). He could have described some of the wonderful things that happen to others on account of him. But Jesus is going down a very different road.Speaking of roads, with this previous Sunday text, a middle item within this Sermon on the Mount may point to a possible theme for the entire sermon. It certainly could be an easy thing to pass over.

The first time Jesus spoke of God as Father, the people were probably in shock. That usually did not happen in the Old Testament. Jesus is starting them down a new road. Even more shocking is that almost all of these references in the Sermon on the Mount are to ‘your Father’. That is something they did not deserve—and here we may think of all the graciousness that begins in the book of Genesis. Here are all the references to ‘Father’ in the Sermon on the Mount:

1. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven (5:16).2. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven (5:44-45a).3. You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (5:48).4. Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven (6:1).5. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (6:4b).6. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret (6:6a).7. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (6:6b).8. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him (6:8).9. Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven… (6:9a).10. For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you… (9:14).11. …but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (9:15).12. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret (6:17-18a).13. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you (6:18b).14. Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them (6:26a).15. For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all (6:32).16. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him (7:11)!17. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (7:21).

It is not so obvious, but perhaps that is the point. For the vast majority of references, Jesus talked about his Father as if he were their Father, and he is not so clear how that happens. He is wanting them to keep on listening, to keep on following him. It is a long road upon which he is walking.​At the middle occurrence, Jesus says that this Father is ‘our’ Father. And, at the very last mention, he says that this Father is ‘my’ Father. For this Father to become our Father, it is crucial to continue to hear his voice as he continues down that road he is headed. And at the end of that very special road—surprise, surprise—he will call them his brothers (see 28:10).

This Sunday is extremely special. Since February 2nd is on a Sunday, and February 2nd is the fortieth day after Christmas, this Sunday we celebrate ‘The Purification of Mary and the Presentation of Our Lord’. It is a significant festival that points to Christ, and so it takes over the readings for the Sunday. The gospel text is from the only place where we know that visit to Jerusalem happened, in the Gospel according to Luke [2:22-32].

With the ‘Presentation of Our Lord’, there is the presentation of Jesus into the temple. This is a special visit to a special place by a special person. And you probably know that something special is going to happen.

Simeon ends up saying some very special things. I would like to focus on basically just one word that he says: face. That word, unfortunately, does not end up in the ESV. The following is a more literal translation: ‘My eyes saw your salvation which you have prepared before the face of all the peoples (verses 30-31).’

It is interesting that the word ‘face’ does not even appear in some ancient manuscripts. Why? It seems that the writer liked to describe being ‘before’ someone, rather than use a reference to ‘face’. He uses that other way in Luke 1:15 (‘he will be great before the Lord’), 1:17 (‘and he will go before him’), 1:19 (‘I am Gabriel, the one standing before God’), 1:75 (‘in holiness and righteousness before him’), and 1:76 (‘he will go before the Lord to prepare his ways’; these translations are also very literal). So, it makes sense that one would expect him to use the word ‘before’ as he did before.

In the previous verses, he was even talking about God or a person, and both of those things have faces! But now, he chooses to say that there is a face ‘of all the peoples’. This is the more difficult reading, the one you would not expect, and, therefore, probably the original reading.

Why was it important for him to say that there was a face of all the peoples? That is a difficult perspective to have. We usually attribute a face to ourselves, and we may attribute a face to God, but we usually do not attribute a face to all the peoples.

With this phrase, and given the way that the writer used similar words before this, I cannot help but think of the word ‘gospel’ as it was used in the Old Testament. It was a word that was used when a significant message went from the battlefield to the king (see 1 Samuel 4:17). But it was also used for other things. Essentially it is an important message that goes from one significant place to another. And I believe the writer is saying that the world is a significant place. And Jesus’ arrival is a significant event.

Lest we forget: the world also has a face. That is what we have in the book of Genesis, in the creation account. Talk about a bigger perspective. With this perspective, individualism is not even given a chance.

All peoples are significant. As a whole, they have a face. It is interesting that, when the Lord breathes into Adam’s nostrils the breath of life, the Greek translation says that he breathed into his face. The face is an important thing. It is a special thing.​I have probably heard of this before and just forgot, and perhaps you have as well, but I read this week that there are seven parts to a person’s face—seven being a significant number in the bible (two ears, two eyes, two nostrils, and one mouth; see TDNT, volume 6, page 774). That may be another simple reminder of how special we are.

For the gospel text this Sunday, the Third Sunday after the Epiphany, we are going back to the Gospel according to Matthew, where we started at the beginning of the church year. But now we are at the fourth chapter [verses 12-25], and we will go on from there for the next few weeks.

All throughout this gospel account, the connections to the Old Testament are strong, and that makes sense, since this is the first book of the New Testament. And the way in which this writer connects his work to the Old Testament is fascinating.

The first Old Testament fulfillment prophecy within this gospel account has to do with the virgin giving birth to a son, Immanuel (1:23), and I have already mentioned before that this special verse in Isaiah (7:14) is at the center of the first main section in Isaiah. But I do not think I mentioned these words of the author of The Book Around Immanuel: Style and Structure in Isaiah 2-12 [Andrew Bartelt, Eisenbrauns, 1996, page 256]: “The break between [‘and she will call his name’] and [‘Immanuel’] divides chaps. 2-12 into equal halves of 3200 syllables.” Can you believe that?!

Another fulfillment prophecy that I wrote about quite recently was the one concerning Jesus as a Nazarene (2:23). I mentioned that this prophecy is unique in that it seems that the writer does not have simply one prophet in mind. Matthew says that the action of Jesus living in Nazareth means that there are prophets, in the plural, whose prophecies were fulfilled by that action.

Although it is impossible to say what the writer intended or what he had in mind—because we cannot interview him today, and we are not mind-readers anyway, something in the mind needs to be articulated to be shared—one thing I would like to mention here is that the writer MAY be pointing to the following two ‘prophets’: Samson, because he had a Nazirite vow—and that word is close to Nazareth (Judges 13), and Isaiah, specifically his prophecy that a shoot would come forth from the stump of Jesse (Isaiah 11)—since the Hebrew word ‘shoot’ is close to the word Nazareth.

Now if those two things were ‘in mind’, there would be a nice structure to this prophecy, in a somewhat similar pattern to the structure that is found in an Old Testament book like Leviticus and a New Testament epistle like Hebrews. These two writings have a structure that is like a one-third/two-thirds structure, like that of the tabernacle or temple, if you would be looking down at it from above. There would be the place for offerings at the one-third spot, and there would be the holy of holies at the two-thirds spot. [For more detail on this topic, see “The Structure of Hebrews: A Word of Exhortation in Light of the Day of Atonement”, in A Cloud of Witnesses: The Theology of Hebrews in its Ancient Contexts, T & T Clark, 2008, pages 20-22.] Both the tabernacle and the temple are gone, but a reminder of those structures continues with the literary structures of some significant texts in the scriptures.

With the book of Judges, we are a significant distance from the beginning of the Old Testament, and with the book of Isaiah, we are at similar distance from the end of the Old Testament. To give you an idea of the approximate distance, the English Standard Version Bible that I was looking at [copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles] just had the basic text—it was not like a study bible which can have very little text and very many notes. This version of the bible had the story of Samson starting on page 255. And the prophecy of Isaiah which dealt with the branch was on page 695, and the Old Testament stopped on page 970, about 275 pages later. The difference between 255 pages and 275 pages is not that much, especially when considering that Isaiah continues for many more pages after chapter 11.

Another interesting point to be made is that, if there is a one-third and two-thirds division within a literary work, you may think of the ‘opposite ends’ of those divisions as being at the following three points in the writing: the beginning, the middle, and the end. And the middle point is probably the most important point to point out, since it usually goes unnoticed; the beginning and the end are always noticed. And usually there is something at the beginning that indicates the important middle, so it is not missed.

The type of structure where there is a significant change in the middle may be seen in several places within both testaments, and I believe I have mentioned these examples before: The second creation account in Genesis, chapter 2, has a negative-positive structure, with its turning point being the ‘face’ of the ground, with the word ‘face’ appearing near the beginning of the first creation account to give you a hint as to its importance. Within the first chapter of 1 Timothy, from verses 3 through 17, there are a series of negatives, and then the turning point is the gospel of the glory of the blessed God (verse 11), with the gospel being brought up at the beginning of the epistle with references to Jesus and grace.

The prophecy fulfillment that is brought up in the text for this coming Sunday may also have that same pattern behind it. Finding a pattern does NOT prove that it is the intention of the author—as I indicated above. It DOES mean that we still have much more work to do on these texts. Dividing the text by chapter and verse is a very artificial way of looking at the text. The writers just had the text to work with, and usually this meant not even having spaces between the words; paper was an extremely valuable thing. And the words of the text were—and still are—extremely valuable, even priceless.

The writer makes the point of Jesus living in Capernaum by the sea, and the writer connects this to the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, and he writes the following:And leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: ‘The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light, and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.’Could this prophecy be the center of a section within this book? It could be. In front of the above text is another reference to Immanuel at 8:10. And, after this text, there is a refrain that appears elsewhere in this book (5:25; 10:4), and it has the word ‘not’ in it. It is in 9:11b—which in the English translations is at 12b.​There are six times that the word ‘not’ is used, but only in the first half of this section (from 8:11 to 9:11a; the word ‘not’ is in the original language and may not appear in the translation). Another interesting thing is that there are 148 words to the first word of our quotation above, and then there are 148 words from that point to the end of that section. Even if this is a coincidence, the New Testament text is extremely important; it appreciates the Old Testament, but, more importantly, it gives us a new start in Jesus Christ. ‘The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light….’

We not only have short attention spans, but we have small perspectives as well. It is difficult to remember the beginning of a story when you reach the end, and it is difficult to see the bigger perspective of the entire story when you are starting at the first part of an ancient text.

One of the first examples that was brought to my attention many years ago was the presence of Jesus, both at the beginning and the end of the Gospel according to Matthew. At the beginning of the work, Jesus is ‘Immanuel’, God with us (1:23). And at the very end of the work, he promises to be always with his disciples, ‘to the end of the age (28:20).’

Someone worked very hard to make that gospel account a cohesive group of words. The words were not just a bunch of unrelated events in the life of Jesus. They had a purpose, a goal.

The gospel text for the Second Sunday after the Epiphany is from the Gospel according to John [1:29-42a], and the perspective of that account is huge. It not only goes back to the very beginning of time (see John 1:1), but it reaches all the way to the present and speaks to those who are reading or hearing those special words (see John 20:31).

This special gospel account also connects to the other accounts and supports those things which happen in the other gospel accounts, but those things are not directly and clearly brought up in this account. The institution of Baptism occurs in the Gospel according to Matthew, and in the Gospel according to John, Jesus connects himself to water on more than one occasion. One day, on the last, great day of a feast, Jesus stood up and said, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, “Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water (7:37-38; ESV).”’ The institution of the Lord’s Supper occurs in the other three gospel accounts, and in the Gospel according to John, Jesus talks about people eating his flesh and drinking his blood (see John 6).

The gospel text for this Sunday is near to the very beginning of this account, and many things are new. In this account we do not have an actual description of Jesus’ baptism, a sign of the beginning of his public ministry, but we do have John the Baptist testifying and supporting that event. That should be good enough for us, right?

There are two words that appear in the perfect tense and that emphasize an important past action that continues to have an effect [for more details about this tense, see page 577 of Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, by Daniel B. Wallace, published by Zondervan, 1996]. These are the words ‘to see’ and ‘to witness’. John the Baptist says in John 1:34: ‘And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.’

I believe there, in this first chapter, there is a strong connection to very near the end of the work, this gospel account’s portrayal of Jesus’ crucifixion and death. For many chapters, the writer has been going on and on about all the things that have happened to Jesus. Then these words go in a different direction; it is as if the writer was directing his attention to the reader or listener; it is quite unusual. Here are these words from John, chapter 19 (I will provide some verses before the sentence to give you a context):

Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe (verses 31-35).

The words ‘to see’ and ‘to bear witness’ are near the end of that quotation. And they both are in that same, perfect tense. Given the great detail that these gospel writers have shown, I do not think that this is a coincidence. These two significant actions in the past have significant ramifications. And it is so clear when the writer is speaking to those who are reading or hearing these words.

It may also be helpful to bring up some relevant verses from 1 John 5 (the word ‘testify’ is the same as ‘bear witness’):

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree (verses 4-8; ESV).

Blood and water are two, extremely important things. Jesus, the Son of God, connects himself to both those things. Jesus HAS those things in himself. And Jesus gives those things out for a purpose, towards a goal, ‘that you also may believe’.